Putin Admits He’s Facing ‘Armed Mutiny’ as Prigozhin Advances on Moscow
‘THIS IS TREASON’
Wagner mercenaries are heading towards the capital as Putin’s presidency comes under threat for the first time.
Josh Fiallo
Nico Hines
Allison Quinn
Updated Jun. 24, 2023 8:39AM ET / Published Jun. 23, 2023 5:43PM ET
Reuters / Telegram
https://policies.google.com/privacyVladimir Putin made an extraordinary address to the nation on Saturday morning admitting that he was facing an “armed mutiny” led by former confidante Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries.
In a five-minute speech that was pre-recorded and then broadcast to a disbelieving nation, the president conceded that the insurrection meant his regime was up against “the toughest battle for its future.”
Before the speech played out, Wagner mercenaries were seen descending with no resistance on Rostov-on-Don, Russia’s southern military HQ, which has been co-ordinating the invasion of Ukraine. Once inside the key command center, Prigozhin recorded a message saying it was under his control.
This insurrection, which began after Prigozhin claimed his men had been struck by a missile fired by the Russian military, is the clearest threat to Putin’s power since he assumed the presidency in 2000.
Putin said he had already issued the order for the military to respond to the organizers of the uprising with “harsh measures.”
“All those who deliberately set out on the path of betrayal will suffer inevitable punishment,” he said.
And yet, there was not much sign of the Russian military standing up to Wagner in defense of their president.
Unconfirmed social media footage showed an apparent explosion at an oil depot in Vorenezh and a possible missile strike on a Wagner column headed for Moscow.
Britain’s Defence Intelligence agency said Wagner units were moving north through Vorenezh Oblast in the direction of Moscow. “With very limited evidence of fighting between Wagner and Russian security forces some have likely remained passive, acquiescing to Wagner,” the intel report said. “This represents the most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times.”
For the first time since the splits between Wagner and the Russian Defense Ministry bubbled to the surface, Prigozhin called out Putin directly on Saturday.
Responding to the president’s address, he shot down the Kremlin’s authority.
“No one is going to turn himself in at the request of the president, the FSB or someone else, no one wants to continue to live in corruption and deceit,” he said. “Those who oppose us are those who have gathered around the scum.”
The scale of the fear within Moscow’s elite was captured by the Kremlin’s number one propagandist Vladimir Solovyov who recorded a video of himself racing back to Russia from Ukraine. “I wasn’t expecting to live to see this kind of thing. Our country is at war,” he said.
Looking for historical parallels, he cited the revolt which led to Russia’s 1917 revolution and Mussolini’s successful coup d’état, the March on Rome.
“Are we really going to allow civil strife now and lose our country?” he asked. “There is nothing more frightening than civil war.”
After months of feuding between the mercenary boss and Russia’s Defense Ministry, things came to a head on Friday night when Prigozhin accused the Russian military of ordering a rocket strike on a camp full of his men, and vowed merciless revenge.
Prigozhin said he was “ready to die” along with 25,000 fighters prepared to stage a mutiny and stop the “evil” leading the failed war effort in Ukraine.
Within hours, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced charges against Prigozhin for attempting to incite an armed rebellion, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars. Top Russian military brass released video appeals calling on Prigozhin to surrender, or for his own men to detain him and hand him over. State-run media aired an emergency broadcast relaying the same message.
But Prigozhin showed no sign of backing down, instead releasing a series of audio messages via his press service in which he accused the Defense Ministry of deploying fighter jets to shoot at Wagner vehicles in the Rostov region and of firing at civilians on Russian territory.
“If someone gets in the way, we will destroy everything that gets in the way. We reach out a hand to everyone, no need to spit in that hand. We are going all the way,” he said, later adding: “We’re all ready to die, all 25,000! And then there will be another 25,000!”
Local media reported checkpoints being set up late Friday night on a highway that leads from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, and the territory around the Kremlin was reportedly closed off to visitors for the foreseeable future. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said “anti-terrorism measures” were being carried out to boost security in the capital, while residents in the Rostov region were urged by the governor to stay at home.
In a fiery voice memo, Prigozhin claimed to have lost a “huge” number of soldiers in the rocket strike at a Wagner camp—an attack Moscow denies orchestrating.
Yevgeny Prigozhin at a recent funeral in Moscow.
Prigozhin said, “Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Prigozhin’s claims “do not correspond to reality and are an informational provocation.”
It’s unclear what the internal ructions mean for fighting on the ground in Ukraine, which has already become rife with infighting between Russian soldiers and Wagner mercenaries. Just last week, Prigozhin vowed to defy an order from Russia’s Defense Ministry to fall under the regular army’s command, saying he’d instead take defectors under his wing and create his own ranks.
Prigozhin said Friday that his “march for justice” will not impede the operations of Russian military troops in Ukraine, but Wagner fighters have been integral to Russian advances—and alleged atrocities—on the front lines.
The mercenary leader escalated his defiance on Friday, asserting that military leaders were “deceiving the public and the president” about why a war with Ukraine was necessary in the first place. He accused military leaders of fear-mongering about a potential Ukrainian invasion that was never coming to justify launching an invasion of their own.
Referring to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu by name, Prigozhin said Russia invaded Ukraine “for the self-promotion of a bunch of bastards.” He added that the operation was poorly planned and “embarrassing.”
“Shoigu killed thousands of the most combat-ready Russian soldiers in the first days of the war,” Prigozhin said. “The mentally ill scumbags decided, ‘It’s OK, we’ll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as ‘cannon fodder. They’ll die under artillery fire, but we’ll get what we want.’”
While the drama between Moscow and Prigozhin played out, Ukrainian officials announced Friday their forces had retaken eight villages from Russian control as part of their first counteroffensive. Top Ukrainian officials conceded this week that gains have been slow, but indicated the attack’s main push is yet to come.
“The counteroffensive is not a new season of a Netflix show,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak posted to Twitter. “There is no need to expect action and buy popcorn. Offensive operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue in a number of areas. Formation operations are underway to set up the battlefield. Time is always important… especially in war.”
Hanna Maliar, a deputy defense minister, reportedly said on Ukrainian TV on Friday that the “main blow is still to come.”
If the Russian army is focused elsewhere that can only help Ukraine’s push.
